United States representative politician
Born on a farm near Oak Ridge, Missouri to John West. and Mary Jane (Horn) Hays, he attended the public schools. Edward Dixon Hays was graduated from the Oak Ridge High School in 1889 and from the Cape Girardeau State Normal School (Southeast Missouri State University) in 1893. He studied law and was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1896 and commenced practice in Jackson, Missouri.
He taught school until 1895. He moved to Jackson, Missouri, in 1895. He served as mayor of Jackson in 1903–1907.
He was elected Probate Judge of Cape Girardeau County from 1907 to 1918.
He moved to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in 1915 and continued the practice of law. He was elected Republican Congressman to the Sixty-sixth and Sixty-seventh United States Congress (March 4, 1919 – March 3, 1923).
He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1923 to the Sixty-eighth Congress. He was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar and Appointed Trial Lawyer, arguing cases before the United States Supreme Court as Special Assistant to the Attorney
General of the United States, first for the Justice Department
(1923–1925), and then for the Interstate Commerce Commission (1925–1933). In 1934, he continued the practice of law in Washington, District of Columbia, and resided in Bethesda, Maryland, where he died on July 25, 1941. He was interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia
